Year 3

Welcome to Year 3 2024-2025

Click on the crayon to find a booklet all about your new year group.

Have a look at what the Year 3 children got up to last academic year (2023-2024)...

Friday 19th July 2024 - Week 7

What an amazing end to a fantastic year! This week, in Design and Technology, we used our plans and cutting skills to create our seasonal tarts. We cut the pastry and our toppings and put them together with a base of passata (savoury tarts) or jam (sweet tarts). Once cooked, we were able to eat them and evaluate the final outcome. They were delicious!

We are so proud of the wonderful year our children have had and we wish you all a wonderful summer!

Friday 12th July 2024 - Week 6

In Science, we created a double page spread on forces and magnets. This gave us the opportunity to demonstrate our understanding and use scientific diagrams, whilst being creative in our presentation techniques. Some of us even added lift up flaps to make our work more engaging.

Friday 5th July 2024 - Week 5

Stem Week - What an amazing week we've had in Year 3! We had two key projects to focus on: a year group project and a federated project: Mission to Mars. 

Our year group project started with learning about Alan Turing and the impact his discoveries around coding had on the war. We created a fact file and a piece of art to share our understanding. After this, we explored music of the future. In teams, we planned and created a guitar which we decorated in a way that represented the team. Once dry, we were able to program micro:bits to allow the guitar to produce music.

Our Mission to Mars project required us to create a buggy to transport goods around the planet. We designed and created vehicles and added trailers to allow us to move more. We are so pleased with the outcome of our collaborative and creative work.

Friday 28th June 2024 - Week 4

In Design and Technology, we have been practising our peeling and chopping skills ready for the creation of our seasonal tarts. We learned how to use them safely and also created posters to teach others how to chop and peel without hurting themselves. 

Friday 21st June 2024 - Week 3

What a busy week we've had! We have really enjoyed the opportunity to get outside and participate in both the Olympics themed activities and Sports Day.

In computing, we have been exploring branching data bases. This required us to select groups of objects to sort, using our own questions. We had to ensure that our questions were closed in order for the branching data base to work.

Friday 14th June 2024 - Week 2

In Music, we are learning about jazz and how it has changed over time. We looked at Disney's 'Bare Necessities' and were able to identify the jazz instrumental. We are really enjoying learning the song and singing along to it

Friday 7th June 2024 - Week 1

The children have made an excellent start to their final half term in Year 3.

In Maths this week, we have been exploring fractions of amounts. The children have been able to use concrete manipulatives to find unit and non-unit  fractions of a set of objects. They recorded their work on their tables which always adds to the fun.

Friday 24th May 2024 - Week 6

We have thoroughly enjoyed resuming our swimming lessons. This week, we focused on forward and backwards push and glide. We then were able to swim under water to retrieve sinkers which we loved! We finished our lesson with a game of 'stuck in the mud (water)' where we had to swim under the arms of those that were stuck to free them.

Friday 17th May 2024 - Week 5

In History, we were able to go back in time using the VR headsets. We visited a Roman city and looked at the key features and their significance to Roman ways of living. After this, we were able to draw our own Roman city, considering the housing and other utilities important to this key period in History. 

Friday 10th May 2024 - Week 4

We had a fabulous 'Free Reading Friday' in the sunshine! It was wonderful to spend time in the sun, sharing books with our friends. Some budding Year 3 photographers captured the moment for us.

In Art, we have started building our sculptures using the designs we created last week. We look forward to sharing those with you over the next couple of weeks.

Friday 3rd May 2024 - Week 3

This week, we visited Butser Ancient Farm and had a wonderful day! There were many exciting activities for us to join in with. Our favourite was an archaeological dig where we discovered different artefacts and discussed what we thought they might have been used for. We also had the opportunity to make Roman jewellery and tour a Roman villa.

Friday 26th April 2024 - Week 2

This week, we had a visit from Winchester University. A group of trainee teachers prepared some exciting activities to carry out with us and our teachers. Ash and Elm Classes applied their creativity to creating comic strips whilst Oak Class used their computing skills to create animations. We had a fantastic morning and showed them what fantastic Balksbury citizens and learners we are.

In PE, one of our focuses is on 'team building'. This week, we worked together in a variety of activities which included creating letters using our bodies.

Friday 19th April 2024 - Week 1

We have had an exciting first week back after the Easter holidays. 

In Science, we explored a variety of flowers by dissecting them and identifying their parts. We were able to label them and explain their purpose.

In History, we explored 'The Balksbury Museum'. This was set up in the hall and contained artefacts from the Stone Age through to Roman times. We thoroughly enjoyed exploring the objects and speculating about their use. 

Friday 22nd March 2024 - Week 5

This week, we finished and evaluated our iMotion animations. We designed our own backgrounds and characters which made them all unique. We worked hard to refine our work to ensure that only the characters moved through careful positioning of the background and camera. 

Friday 15th March 2024 - Week 4

In Science, we are learning about light and how we see. This week's learning focused on shadows. We investigated what happened when the torch was directed at opaque, transparent and translucent objects and how this altered the shadows formed. We also created shadows using our hands and our classmates had to guess the animal/object we were forming.

Friday 8th March 2024 - Week 3

Another busy and exciting week in Year 3. This week, we were very excited for World Book Day. We all looked fantastic in our costumes and had a wonderful afternoon exploring the book 'What We'll Build' by Oliver Jeffers. Using our wonderful imaginations, we focused on one page of the book in particular. This page explored a tunnel and where it would lead us if we could choose anywhere. Our ideas were varied and creative.

Friday 1st March 2024 - Week 2

There has been some fantastic learning in Year 3 this week. We have been particularly impressed with the work produced in Computing. The children have had their first opportunity to work with iMotion on the iPads. They used whiteboards to create their own mini-animations. We think you will agree, they are amazing for their first attempt.

Friday 23rd February 2024 - Week 1

Our new unit of work in Physical Education is tennis. This week, just before the hail hit, we managed to get outside and start our learning. We worked on our racket control and were impressed with how much easier it is to control the ball now we are in Year 3.

Friday 9th February 2024 - Week 6

This week, we filmed our final performances in Music. We have been learning about traditional Indian music and learned to perform a song called 'Anile'. We sang the lyrics and learned to play the tune on glockenspiels. 

Friday 2nd February 2024 - Week 5

In Religious Education, we have been learning about the Hindu festival of Holi. This week, after learning about how the festival is celebrated and the story behind it, we took part in sensory experiences. We looked at photos or people celebrating the festival and wrote down our observations. Using paint, we created a whole class picture using bright colours. Using the sense of smell, we discussed the traditional yogurt drink, Lassi, and smelled ingredients that could be used to create it. Our final experience focused on the sense of hearing, and we listened to traditional Indian music whilst exploring the drums and creating our own beat. We had a great time.

Friday 26th January 2024 - Week 4

In Computing, we are learning to program using Scratch. We have been learning how the different blocks work and piecing them together to form algorithms. We have learned how to make our sprites move and also how to add sound and backgrounds to our projects.

Friday 19th January 2024 - Week 3

In Maths, we have been exploring 3D shapes. We use concrete manipulatives to explore each shape's properties and were able to count the number of vertices, faces and edges and record this on a table. Using nets and other resources, we challenged ourselves to create different 3D shapes. 

Friday 12th January 2024 - Week 2

In Science, we have been exploring different rocks. This week we carried out an investigation to test: durability, whether they float or sink and whether they react to vinegar being dripped on them. We were blown away to see the bubbles forming on the chalk when we added vinegar. Using labelled diagrams, we were able to present our findings.

Friday 5th January 2024 - Week 1 - Spring Term

Happy New Year to all of our wonderful families!

We have had a fabulous start to the new year. Spring term kicked off with a visit from Open Box who introduced us to 'Early Man'. With the opportunity to role play, and new information galore, we delved into our new topic about the stone age.

In English, we explored cave paintings and how they may have been created. In a darkened classroom, with cave sound effects surrounding us, we entered our own caves (under our tables) and created our own cave paintings.

Friday 8th December 2023 - Week 13

In Guided Reading, we have been exploring performance poetry. We watched some famous poets performing their own poetry and looked for common features to engage the listener. In groups, we then practised performing a section of a poem before piecing it together as a whole class performance. You can watch our performances here: https://balksbury-inf-hants.primarysite.media/playlist/year-3-performance-poetry

Friday 1st December 2023 - Week 12

In Science, we had the opportunity to apply our knowledge of nutrition and diet to making a leaflet on healthy/balanced lunches. We were able to include useful information and illustrate our work to engage the reader.

In dance, we continued to practise our 'Balksbury Come Dancing' dance. Our teachers are really impressed with how we have learned the routine and we can't wait to share it with you.

Friday 24th November 2023 - Week 11

We have continued with our sewing in Design and Technology. This week, we cut out the shapes we created when planning our designs and started the process of sewing them on to our chosen cushion cover.

Friday 17th November 2023 - Week 10

We spent most of today being Scientists. We worked with Miss Nield to carry out some research into different diets. Working in teams, we gathered information and then presented it to the rest of the class.

We also worked with Mrs Whittington to start our longitudinal study. Making the most out of the sunshine, we went outside and planted 101 bulbs in our planter. We will monitor these over time to observe the changes. We can't wait to see what grows.

Friday 10th November 2023 - Week 9

In Design and Technology, we have started to design our cushions. We had to think creatively and consider how to ensure that it will be simple enough to sew. Our teachers were really impressed with how we demonstrated our value of 'perseverance' through our learning. We were able to thread the needle and learn to cross stitch.

Friday 3rd November 2023 - Week 8

This week, we kicked off our North America Geography topic with a 'trip' to New York. Using the VR headsets, we explored the city and its physical and human features before moving on to Canada. The session stirred great excitement and we are looking forward to embracing our new unit of learning.

Friday 20th October 2023 - Week 7

This week, we finished our wonderful 'Dream Giver' writing based on the short animation. We worked so hard to engage the reader and our use of vocabulary has been phenomenal. Here are some samples from across the year group.

Friday 29th September 2023: Week 4

Our week started with the excitement of discovering a hedgehog living under the bug house in the Year 3 garden area. The children were fascinated to see the hedgehog up close as it built a nest around itself.

In Art this week, we have produced some stunning artwork. We are enjoying the technique of pointillism, and have been exploring and recreating City of London photographic scenes.

In Gymnastics, we have refined our basic shapes and explored patch and point balances. Working in small groups, we created some wonderful balances.

Friday 22nd September 2023: Week 3

We have had another fabulous week in Year 3. In Physical Education, we have been developing our hockey skills. We have learned how to hold and control a hockey stick and have been able to dribble and pass the ball.

In Science, we have been learning about the human skeleton. We worked in teams to put together a skeleton and label some of the key parts and their function.  

Friday 15th September 2023: Week 2

This week, we have been working hard on our descriptive writing. Our teachers have been blown away by our use of vocabulary such as: vast, magnificent, tsunami and vulnerable. We look forward to sharing our finished work soon.

In Religious Education, we have explored the concept of imagination. We used half-images and let our imaginations run wild completing them. Here are some of our creations.

Friday 8th September 2023: Week 1

Welcome back! Year 3 have settled beautifully - we are so impressed.

This week, we have been exploring pointillism in Art and Design. The work we have produced has been stunning. The children have also enjoyed learning the David Bowie ballad: Space Oddity in Music. It has been wonderful to hear their enthusiasm for a classic song. They have been singing beautifully.

Friday 7th July - Week 5

This week, we have celebrated the arts. In our year group, we focused on South America and the artist Romero Britto. We looked at his artwork, which is fun, vibrant pop art, and then we created a group piece as a whole class using different materials. Our final outcome was an individual pot using the technique of decoupage.

Across the week, we participated in many workshops including: Bollywood, street dance, theatre and drumming.

We enjoyed sharing our work with you at the Arts Festival - we hope that you enjoyed it too!

Friday 30th June 2023 - Week 4

Another busy and exciting week in Year 3. We started our week by meeting our new Year 4 teachers - we are more than ready for the next step on our journey through the federation.

Through our Design and Technology learning, we planned, created, tasted and evaluated our seasonal tarts. Some of us were very adventurous and chose to use all ingredients available: jam, strawberries, tomatoes, cheese, mint and basil. First, we created the pastry - measuring, stirring, mixing, rolling and cutting. It was a messy job but we loved it! We then selected and cut our toppings and decided how we would like to arrange them. They looked delicious! Once baked, we were able to taste and evaluate them.

We also took a quick trip to Brazil! The virtual reality headsets allowed us to travel to South America to explore this beautiful country. We were able to identify physical and human features to link in with our learning in Geography.

Friday 23rd June 2023 - Week 3

What a busy and exciting week we've had in Year 3! Our trip to Trinley Estate was a huge success. Not only did we have lots of fun but the children were exceptionally well behaved - a true credit to the federation and their families. In the woods, the children worked together to gather resources to build dens. We were so impressed with how they worked together - truly wonderful team work. In the arboretum, the children spent time exploring their surroundings. They were able to explore what was growing there, hunt for and identify mini-beasts and birds and they spent time taking in their surroundings by drawing for pleasure. They all had the opportunity to go on a tractor ride and learn about the crops growing on the farm and the use of these in food production. 

Friday 16th June 2023 - Week 2

We have enjoyed getting stuck into our Shakespeare English learning journey this week. Making the most out of the glorious weather, we have been outside and recreated scenes from the play. It has been wonderful to see the connections being made between Julius Caesar and our learning in History last term. 

In Design and Technology, we have been tasting different ingredients and considering their nutritional value in preparation for designing our tarts.

Friday 9th June 2023 - Week 1

This week, we started our new Science unit: Forces and Magnets. We explored friction and tested the movement and distance travelled by toy cars on different surfaces. Oak class also gathered baby spider plants from across the federation and began the process of planting them.

Friday 26th May 2023: Week 6

What a fantastic end to the half term! We had an amazing school trip to Butser Ancient Farm. The children were so excited and their behaviour was exemplary - a true credit to us all. We explored a Roman villa, took part in an archaeological dig and made jewellery from sheep's wool and metal. 

Friday 19th May 2023: Week 5

We have been 'getting creative' this week. Making the most of the dry weather, we took our Art and Design outside and began the process of building our sculptures. It was messy business but we had so much fun!

In PE, we played a mini game of rounders. The teachers were so impressed with how we worked together. Not only did we show excellent skill and sportsmanship, but we also created our own rules to ensure that everyone had a turn at batting. 

Friday 12th May 2023: Week 4

Excitement bubbled over this week, as we finally got back in the pool! The rain eased in time for our session and the pool was gloriously warm. 

In Health and Wellbeing, we have been discussing different scenarios and how we might react if we were put in the same situation. We formed a 'yes' side of the room and a 'no' side and shared and explained our opinions. Some of us switched sides when we heard the opinions of others. We were fabulous listeners and were able to respectfully challenge the views of others.

Friday 5th May 2023: Week 3

In History, we have been exploring artefacts from the Roman era and learning about the legacy left behind. As well as looking at maps of Roman roads, wax tablets to write on and Roman games, we were highly amused by the discovery that a sponge on a stick was the Roman version of toilet paper! We also had the chance to dress up in Roman and Celtic clothing.

Friday 28th April 2023: Week 2

In Art and Design, we created our own mini-sculptures using a stick and other left over resources. We impressed our teachers with our creativity and they are excited to see what we produce for our final piece of the unit.

In Science, we monitored our longitudinal study. We have some lovely flowers growing in our raised bed. We took the time to draw and label what is currently growing.

During our indoor PE session, we played a variety of team building games. Our favourite activity was making letter shapes within our teams, using our bodies.

Friday 21st April 2023: Week 1

What a wonderful week! The children have returned to school eager to learn and full of enthusiasm. 

In English, an ancient briefcase arrived full of mysterious objects appeared in the classroom. The children were able to discuss the clues within to form a prediction about the title of our new book: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. They made some fantastic connections between the words and clues given.

We had a visit from a tennis coach this week. He worked with us exploring tennis skills through fun activities.

In Science, we explored leaves and their features/functions. We collected leaves and sorted them using a carroll diagram. We were able to use the microscopes to gain a closer look and created a labelled diagram to show what we could see. 

Friday 31st March 2023: Week 6

What an exciting last week of term! We have continued to be very busy in our learning.

Today, we brought in our colourful clothes ready to perform our Holi dance. We have thoroughly enjoyed choreographing our own dance routines and watching traditional Indian dances. Click here to see our videos

In Maths, we have been exploring properties of shapes. This week, we have focused on angles and directions. We worked together to demonstrate our understanding by guiding each other around a maze in the classroom.

Friday 24th March 2023: Week 5

In English this week, we have been writing setting descriptions for an image of a stormy sea. We have challenged ourselves with our sentence structure and have blown our teachers away with our choice of powerful vocabulary.

We were so excited to try out the new gym equipment this week. We took it in turns and really showed the federated values through our play.

In computing, we have continued to work on building and improving our iron age animations with our partners. We have explored adding text and sounds to further develop our work.

Free Reading Friday

The children in Year 3 love reading and relish the opportunity to share their reading with others across the federation. Some of them chose to read newspapers and magazines this week and they thoroughly enjoyed discussing them with each other.

World Book Day

The children looked fantastic in their costumes - everyone went to so much effort. The day was a huge success.

Through the story of 'The Night Gardner', the children wrote a newspaper front page to report on the mystery of the animal shaped trees. The writing produced was fantastic and they were fascinated by the story.

In the afternoon, they created bonsai trees using water colours which were stunning.

Across the day, the children had the opportunity to share a story with children in other year groups which is always exciting. 

Hockey

The children are thoroughly enjoying learning the skills needed in hockey. They are able to dribble the ball with control and can make accurate passes.

Holi Experience - Religious Education

Year 3 have been learning about the Hindu festival of Holi. They had stations set out around the classroom to explore:

- Drums - making music whilst listening to traditional Indian music

- Colour - finger painting using different colours. They then wrote around the painting how the colours made them feel

- Pictures - the children looked at a selection of pictures taken during Holi and wrote their thoughts and feelings down around them

- Lassi - the children tasted a traditional dish made from yoghurt and mango.

The experiences were thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Virtual Reality Cave Experience

The children used the VR headsets to explore two different caves. Whilst exploring the caves, they wrote down adjectives they could use to describe what they could see and how it made them feel. They then used this vocabulary bank to write a setting description.

Cave Paintings

In English, we have been exploring the book: The Stone Age Boy. We looked at cave paintings and used pastels and chalks to create our own. These were then used to inspire a vocabulary bank to help us with our writing.

3D Shapes

We have been exploring 3D shapes and creating our own using a variety of resources. 

Measuring in Maths

We have been exploring length, capacity and mass in Maths. We thoroughly enjoyed the practical element of our learning and working with our friends.

Chinese Folk Music

In Music, we have been exploring Pentatonic melodies and composition. We have listened to a range of pieces of Chinese folk music and understand how Chinese New Year is celebrated. We have used the glockenspiels to compose our own pentatonic melodies. Using these melodies, we were able to recreate the celebration of Chinese New Year using masks we had made.

Trip to Rooksbury Mill

This week, we carried out some fieldwork for our Geography unit: Rivers. We were able to identify some of the features of a river we have been learning about in class. We worked in groups to gather data, use our maps, OS symbol list and a compass. When we arrived back at school, we presented our data in our books.

Science

In Science, we are exploring light and shadows. We have carried out an experiment to prove that you need light in order to see. In our groups, we had a box which contained a hole to look through, but we could not see anything. We added additional holes, one at a time, and recorded our findings. As we let in more light, we began to see what our box contained.

We have also explored shadows, how we can create them and how they change as we move.

Maths Outdoors

This week in Maths, we have been exploring multiplication and division facts. We have focused on the three and four times tables and have been outside using natural resources to make arrays. In the classroom, we applied this understanding by creating pictorial representations of arrays. These, along with other methods, then helped us with solving word problems.

Gathering and Presenting Data in Mathematics

The children have had a wonderful time this week, working in teams to gather and present information. They have used tally charts, pictograms and bar graphs. Super team work Year 3!

Into the Forest

In English, the children have been on a scavenger hunt in the woods, searching for fairytale characters. They then used their senses to create a vocabulary bank. They gathered some wonderful vocabulary: gloomy, terrifying, mysterious - they thoroughly enjoyed exploring language. 

Year 3 have been exploring the technique of pointillism. They used water colour pencils to create a self-portrait.

Week 1

Wow! What an amazing first week! We have been so impressed with how the children have settled and with how quickly they have adapted to their new routines - they are a credit to you. 

This week, we have started our first English journey based on the short animation 'Dreamgiver' (feel free to google it if you want to watch). The children were instantly hooked and created their own dreams - they were so imaginative. In Maths, the children have been exploring three-digit numbers using concrete resources. We have been really impressed with their understanding and their ability to solve problems and explain their reasoning.

Following the sad news of the death of our Queen, the children reflected on her life and produced some beautiful art work.

Well done Year 3 - keep up the super work!

Above, you will find an overview of this half-term's learning.